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Postpartum depression, mood disorders and support for moms

Today’s guest is Katayune Kaeni, Psy.D., is a psychologist specializing maternal mental health and the creator and host of the Mom & Mind Podcast. She was drawn to this specialty after going through Postpartum Depression and Anxiety with her first child. Dr. Kat has a private practice in Claremont, Ca and runs a free pregnancy and postpartum stress support group in her community. She volunteers with Postpartum Support International as the area co-coordinator for San Bernardino Co. Dr. Kat works with San Bernardino Co.’s Maternal Mental Health workgroup to provide training to local mental health and allied healthcare providers.

In this episode you will learn:

  • What are postpartum depression and anxiety
  • Symptoms to be aware of
  • Importance of opening the dialog up between moms and daughters regarding mental health issues or pregnancy issues

Postpartum depression, anxiety, and OCD

  • Dr. Kat shares her personal experience of PPD
  • Feeling pressure of messages about being new mom, working and “knowing what to do”
  • [spp-tweet tweet=”Up to 20% of new moms deal with diagnosable pregnancy mood disorder”]
  • Symptoms to be aware of:
    • Mood changes can happen during pregnancy
    • If birthing process is traumatizing
    • About 80% of new moms will experience “baby blues”-2 to 3 weeks of feeling anxious, sad or PMS-will go away on its on
    • Seek medical advice if mom is not wanting to hold her baby, feeling disconnected from baby, feeling overly worried
    • Or if the mom is doing a lot of tasks, has difficulty sitting still or going to sleep
    • More significant symptoms can be onset of Bipolar or postpartum psychosis
  • Can have genetic component to be predisposed to mood disorder
    • Important to share this dialog between moms and daughters
    • Dr. Kat shares some questions to ask moms

Challenging the myths of being a new mom:

  • Being prepared can help reduce the possibility of going into full PPD or anxiety
  • Find out your family history
  • Seek support from groups and medical professionals
    • Postpartum International has list of resources
  • Symptoms can show up anytime the first year after giving birth
    • If not addressed it can peak about four years postpartum

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher

Dr. Kat’s Information

http://www.momandmind.com

Resources (some maybe affiliate links)

http://www.postpartum.net

http://www.2020mom.org

Beyond the Blues by Bennet PhD and Indman EdD  

This Isn’t What I Expected by Kleiman and Raskin 

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